A House Divided

For once, I have to express my pride in Congressional Republicans for their actions today in holding Nancy Pelosi and her minions accountable for blocking a vote on lifting the Congressional ban on offshore drilling. For those of you who haven't heard, Pelosi tried to cut off debate on the measure so the House could go on a five week vacation by adjourning the House, but House Republicans kept talking. And talking. And talking.

And that left House Democrats fuming. Once again, Nancy Pelosi saw her majority crumble when some within her ranks started siding with the Republicans and supporting drilling. But anybody who followed the 2006 midterm elections should have seen this inevitability coming.

I've long said that Democrats seriously misread the midterm election results, focusing solely on the numbers they needed to get the majority in both houses of Congress. With the House, they got the numbers, but what they failed to see was who was winning the elections. It wasn't Democrats like Pelosi; it was conservative Democrats who won by listening to the people more than the Republicans were. Sure, they voted with Pelosi on some issues, but as time has gone on, they've started to break away from her more and more as they gained confidence.

That's the funny thing about freshmen Congresscritters. They haven't gotten too entrenched in insider politics, so they're actually listening to the people they represent. And right now, the people are asking for oil prices to come down and for oil companies to start drilling for and refining oil. Republicans got the message, and conservative Democrats got the message, but Pelosi and company didn't. And it didn't matter that they rushed C-Span out of the House when they saw the Republicans weren't going to let it go. The message was heard loud and clear, and Democrats' hopes of retaining the House took a sharp turn south.

There may have been some eerie symbolism today in the House when Democrats ordered the lights be turned out in the House while the Republicans were still talking. They might have been turning out the lights on the Pelosi era.